The Wood's Secret Garden

"But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." -Matthew 6:33 Until we get our hearts out of the world, how easily our hearts are carried away with the thoughts of earthly concerns! Until we can separate and purge our spirits, how we mingle our prayers with many ridiculous thoughts! It is too usual for us to deal with God as an unskilled person that will gather a posy for his friend, and put in as many or more stinking weeds than he does choice flowers. The flesh introduces, and our carnal hearts insert and interlace our prayers with vain thoughts and earthly distractions. Then, when we come to offer incense to God with our censer, we mingle sulphur with our incense. Therefore, we should always labour to get our hearts above the world into the presence of God, as if we were by him in heaven, and wholly swallowed up with his glory . Though our bodies are on earth, our spirits should be in heaven. Until we get above the mist...

Choice excerpts from Thomas Brooks "THE PRIVY KEY OF HEAVEN" (A Discourse of Closet Prayer, published during the awful plague of London in 1665) "You have a whore's forehead, you refuse to be ashamed!" Jeremiah 3:3 "Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct? No, they have no shame at all! They do not even know how to blush!" Jeremiah 6:15 They had sinned away shame, instead of being ashamed ofsin. Continuance in sin had quite banished all sense of sin and all shame for sin; so that they would not allow nature to draw her veil of blushing before their great abominations. How applicable these scriptures are to the present time, I will leave the prudent reader to judge. But what does the prophet do, now that they were as bold in sin, and as shameless as so many harlots; now that they were grown up to that height of sin and wickedness; now that they were above all shame and blushing; now that they were grown so proud, so hardened, so obstinate, so rebell...

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways . James 1:5-8 “Wisdom is in the sight of him who has understanding, But the eyes of a fool are on the ends of the earth.” (Prov.17:24) Matthew Henry wrote, “He that has a giddy head, a roving rambling fancy, will never be fit for any solid business. He is a fool, and good for nothing, whose eyes are in the ends of the earth, here, and there and every where, any where but where they should be, who cannot fix his thoughts to one subject nor pursue any one purpose with any thing of steadiness. When his mind should be applied to his study and business it is filled with a thousand things foreign and impertinent.” God has giv...

"It is finished!" John 19:30 Holy Father, The heavens, the earth, and all that are therein, proclaim Your wondrous goodness. But Your love shines forth in surpassing luster--at Calvary's stupendous scene! At the cross we see Your heavenly grace removing the tremendous load of our iniquities from us--and heaping them all on Your beloved Son! We see Him standing as a transgressor in our place. We see Him, who knew no sin--made sin for us. We see Him, the all-holy One--accounted as a curse! We see Your justice leading the spotless Lamb to the slaughter--and rigorously demanding the full payment for all our sin-debt! The avenging sword enters into His very heart! The stream of sin-atoning blood flows! Full recompense is meted out! Divine Justice can ask no more. Charges against us are all obliterated. The debt-book is cancelled. If our sins are searched for, they cannot now be found!The spotless Lamb is devoted to all anguish--that we may be inheritors of all joy. He is cast...

The universe with all its myriad creatures is Thine, made by Thy word, upheld by Thy power, governed by Thy will. But Thou art also the Father of mercies, the God of all grace, the bestower of all comfort, the protector of the saved. Thou hast been mindful of us, hast visited us, preserved us, given us a goodly heritage –the Holy Scriptures, the joyful gospel, the Saviour of souls, We come to Thee in Jesus’ name, make mention of His righteousness only, plead His obedience and sufferings who magnified the law both in its precepts and penalty, and made it honourable. May we be justified by His blood, saved by His life, joined to His Spirit. Let us take up His cross and follow Him. May the agency of Thy grace prepare us for Thy dispensations. Make us willing that Thou shouldest choose our inheritance and determine what we shall retain or lose, suffer or enjoy; If blessed with prosperity may we be free from its snares, and use, not abuse, its advantages; May we patiently and cheerfully sub...

“The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces” (v. 72; cf. v. 14). “Therefore I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold” (v. 127). God’s Word is exquisite, sublime, splendid, and sweet. God’s Word is powerful, faithful, righteous, and true. God’s Word is great, glorious, grand, and good. Why? Because in it we see God! Through it, he draws near! By means of its truth, we experience the incomparable joy of knowing him and seeing him and beholding the beauty of his infinite elegance. Hear, O Lord, our prayer: “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law!” (Psalm 119:18). Sam Storms Just think about Psalm 119:18. Ponder that passage as you ponder "discerning" the Word.

Give me freedom to open the sorrows of thy people, and to set before them comforting considerations. Attend with power the truth preached, and awaken the attention of my slothful audience. May thy people be refreshed, melted, convicted, comforted, and help me use the strongest arguments drawn from Christ's incarnation and sufferings, that men might be made holy. I myself need thy support, comfort, strength, holiness, that I might be a pure channel of thy grace, and be able to do something for thee; Give me then refreshment among thy people, and help me not to treat excellent matter in a defective way, or bear a broken testimony to so worthy a Redeemer, or be harsh in treating of Christ's death, its design and end, from lack of warmth and fervency. And keep me in tune with thee as I do this work. [Bennett, Arthur G. The Valley of Vision A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions. Carlisle: Banner of Truth, 2003, 348-349.]

My hopes were high, as I awoke On such a Glorious day-- Your Victory to celebrate The Truth, The Life, The Way! I looked around with hope to find A light, a spark, a glimmer But all I saw were lifeless forms O’ could it get much dimmer? Apathy has filled Your house; But, I will worship You Blank, bored faces and empty stares— In almost every pew. I often wonder, “Why do they come?” “Why do they sit for an hour? Is it because they like the form of God But have never felt Your power? Why do you come? Why not stay home? Is this a wasted hour? What should be sweet, to your soul Just seems to leave you sour. Protect me from the awful plague Don’t let my heart succumb The world, the flesh, the dull routine Is that what makes them numb? Forgive me Lord, if I am wrong Dead bones is all I see. O’ breath Your life into those bones And set the captives free. Apathy has filled Your house; O’ shake it with Your might So when we gather in Your Name There is Joy, and Love and Light. D.L. Kane (Easter...

How do we pray? How do you pray? Aren't most of our prayers "man-centered"--even "self-centered" and mostly temporal? God is the most important person in the universe. More important than all others put together. All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness" (Isaiah 40:17). That's why Jesus put this request at the beginning of the Lord's prayer: " Hallowed be your name." The whole-souled act of hallowing God's name is the most important act in the universe. To "hallow" means to "sanctify" which in God's case means to set apart in your mind and heart as supremely great and beautiful and valuable. "Hallowed be your name" means, "See to it that your name is hallowed. Use your infinite power and wisdom and love to stir up billions of hearts and minds to admire you and prize you above all things." We ask him to fulfill this promise: ...

The tender dew which falls in the silent night makes the grass and herbs and flowers to flourish and grow more abundantly--than great showers of rain which fall in the day.Just so, secret prayer will more abundantly cause the sweet flowers of grace and holiness to grow and flourish in the soul, than all those more open, public, and visible duties of religion, which too, too often, are mingled and mixed with the sun and wind of pride and hypocrisy. Thomas Brooks "Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful." Colossians 4:2

I have been so heavy hearted for a young Christian sister (who Michael, and Donna, Mel, Deni and many other have been praying for) that I had to post this email that I sent to her. It blessed me and I pray that God will use it to bless her, as well. She told me tonight (she comes from a Roman Catholic background) that she sees her relationship with Christ as "A tyrannical, demanding, Master (Christ) and she as a slave". Please (if you are reading this blog) prayer that the Lord will bless her with an overwhelming abundance of His Truth, and His grace. I have no doubt that she loves the Lord (I have known her for over a year now on a very intimate level). She is one of those precious saints, like Cowper, who have a almost "Bi-polar" spiritual relationship with Christ. High mountain top, child like ecstasy; followed by darkness and despair that almost debilitate them. I love her dearly and ask you to continue to pray for her. Here is the post. An excerpt from a sermon...

Heavenly Father, It is thy mercy to afflict and try me with wants, for by these trials I see my sins, and desire severance from them. Let me willingly accept misery, sorrows, temptations, if I can thereby feel sin as the greatest evil, and be delivered from it with gratitude to thee, acknowledging this as the highest testimony of thy love. When thy Son, Jesus, came into my soul , He became more dear to me than sin had formerly been; His kindly rule replaced sin’s tyranny. Teach me to believe that if ever I would have any sin subdued, I must not only labor to overcome it, but must invite Christ to abide in the place of it , and He must become to me more than vile lust had been ; that His sweetness, power, life may be there. Thus I must seek a grace from Him contrary to sin, but must not claim it apart from Himself. When I am afraid of the evils or heartbreaks to come, comfort me by showing me that in myself I am a dying, condemned wretch, but in Christ I am reconciled and live; that i...

The meditations of a blessed friend: As I was reading yesterday morning, I came to 1st Tim.5:24 , "Some men's sins are open beforehand going before to judgement ...." With the understanding that all our sin, and all our sins, have been and are open before God having been judged before in Christ, we are now made free to be who He has made us to be in Him! So then the idea of becoming (as we already are) "transparent" came to mind: Transparent before God and man. As we are enabled to draw nigh to God by faith in His Word (1JN.5:8 .. "there are three that bear witness in earth , the Spirit , and the water , and the blood : and these three agree in one"), He graciously and mercifully exposes to us our sins , for the purpose that we might see Christ more precious than ever before. For where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. This brings us back to the word TRANSPARENT - When we think of the word transparent, we think of something you can see thr...

Precious Christ, I come with a large request for 2009: it is that You would be the "Alpha and Omega" of it. Do You not say, "Ask what I shall give you?" Yourself, Lord! You have most blessedly given Yourself to me. But I find sweet liberty to entreat more unfolding, revealing, and opening of Your glorious person, amazing work, and matchless love, than I have yet had; and more losing and treading down of SELF, too--that I may be lost in Your fullness, and forgotten and forsaken in Your soul-absorbing glories. Oh! raise me higher, draw me nearer, that I may daily die, and You live in me more manifestly. I just give myself to You, to live on You, to live in You, to live for You, more and more than heretofore, and that by the power of the Spirit resting on me. I humbly ask that mine may be a large and still-increasing portion; that, under fresh anointings, You, most lovely Jesus, may be more fully known, more loved, more served; for it is to You the Holy Spirit l...

As the New Year was approaching, I was convicted daily of (primarily--but not limited to) two things: 1) That I do not love the Word of God, as I ought 2) That I do not spend as much time with the Lord in prayer, as I ought. It seems that God has placed this same conviction on the hearts of the authors of every single church and ministry website and/or blog that I follow--which is great affirmation and encouragement to my soul. Of course, as I read the sermons that were preached by the "dead men" down through the ages, the same convictions and desires were expressed by them as the New Year approached, back in their times, as well. This should not surprise us, as this is the time many reflect back on the past year and realize that they had not made the best use of it in terms of God's means for spiritual growth. I am simply pleased that many of God's people are desiring to place Him first in the coming year. With that in mind: Continue steadfastly in prayer. -- Colo...